The Israel-Palestine Conflict: A Comprehensive Overview

The Israel-Palestine conflict, a longstanding and deeply rooted issue, has caused immense human suffering and displacement for over a century. Recent events, such as Israel’s military actions in the Gaza Strip in response to attacks by Hamas, have drawn global attention to this ongoing conflict. To understand the conflict’s origins and its complex evolution, let’s delve into a comprehensive overview.

The Balfour Declaration (1917)

The Balfour Declaration of 1917 was a significant milestone that shaped the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. It was a letter from Arthur Balfour, the British foreign secretary, to Lionel Walter Rothschild, a prominent member of the British Jewish community. The letter stated that the British government supported the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine, which was then under Ottoman rule and had a majority of Palestinian Arabs. The letter also stipulated that nothing should be done to harm the rights of the existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the Jews in other countries. The Balfour Declaration was published in the press on November 9, 1917.

The Balfour Declaration had various reactions from different parties. The Zionists welcomed it as a recognition of their national aspirations and a boost for their movement. They saw it as a guarantee that Britain would help them create a Jewish state in Palestine after the war. The Palestinian Arabs, on the other hand, rejected it as a betrayal of their rights and interests. They felt that Britain had no right to give away their land to another people without their consent. They also feared that a large influx of Jewish immigrants would threaten their demographic and political status in Palestine. The Arab leaders, who had fought alongside Britain against the Ottoman Empire, felt that they were not consulted or respected by Britain. They demanded that Britain honor its previous promises of Arab independence and self-determination in the region. The Balfour Declaration also provoked criticism from some anti-Zionist Jews, who argued that it violated the principle of Jewish assimilation and integration in their host countries. They also worried that it would increase anti-Semitism and hostility towards Jews worldwide.

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The Balfour Declaration had far-reaching consequences for the future of Palestine and the Middle East. It set in motion a process of Jewish immigration and settlement in Palestine, which increased the tension and conflict between the Jewish and Arab communities. It also shaped the British mandate over Palestine, which lasted from 1920 to 1948, and influenced the policies and actions of Britain and other powers in the region. It also laid the foundation for the creation of Israel in 1948, which resulted in the displacement and dispossession of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

The 1930s: Arab Revolt

The Arab Revolt was a historic moment of Palestinian defiance and struggle that took place from 1936 to 1939. It was provoked by the discontent of the Palestinian people with the British colonial occupation and the rising number of Jewish immigrants that the British facilitated. The Palestinians resorted to various forms of civil disobedience and armed resistance, such as initiating a large-scale strike, rejecting tax payments, and shunning Jewish goods, to challenge the British rule and demand their rights. The British administration reacted with extreme violence, such as detaining thousands of people, razing houses, and enforcing martial law, to crush the revolt. The Arab Revolt had profound and lasting consequences for Palestine’s future. It resulted in the deaths of thousands of Palestinians, Jews, and British soldiers, as well as the displacement and impoverishment of many more. It also represented a turning point in the Palestinian national movement, as it exposed the limits of British support and the need for a unified leadership and strategy. It also affected the regional and international dynamics, as it involved the intervention of neighboring Arab countries and the formation of a special committee by the League of Nations to investigate the situation. Moreover, it set a precedent for future Palestinian resistance against colonialism and Zionism.

UN Partition Plan (1947)

In 1947, the United Nations adopted Resolution 181, which proposed the partition of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states. The Palestinian population rejected this plan as it allocated a significant portion of Palestine to the Jewish state, including much of the fertile coastal region. At the time, Palestinians owned 94% of historic Palestine and comprised 67% of its population.

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The United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 181 on November 29, 1947, which recommended the division of Palestine into two independent states, one for the Arab majority and one for the Jewish minority. The resolution also proposed an international regime for Jerusalem, which was considered a holy city for both peoples. The partition plan was based on a report by a special committee that had consulted with representatives of the Jewish Agency and the Arab Higher Committee, but not with the Palestinian people themselves. The plan was rejected by the Palestinians and most of the Arab states, who argued that it violated their right to self-determination and sovereignty over their own land. They also pointed out that the plan gave the Jewish state 56% of Palestine, even though Jews owned only 6% of the land and constituted 33% of the population. Moreover, the plan allocated most of the fertile and urban areas to the Jewish state, leaving the Arab state with mostly desert and mountainous regions.

The implementation of the plan resulted in a violent conflict between the two communities, as well as an invasion by neighboring Arab countries. The war led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes and lands, and the establishment of Israel in most of the territory assigned to it by the UN. The remaining parts of Palestine were occupied by Egypt and Jordan until 1967, when Israel captured them in another war. The UN partition plan thus marked the beginning of a long and unresolved struggle over Palestine.

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The 1948 Nakba (Catastrophe)

The 1948 Nakba (Catastrophe) was a tragic and traumatic event that shaped the fate of Palestine and Israel. It involved a systematic and violent campaign of ethnic cleansing by Zionist forces, who wanted to establish a Jewish state on Palestinian land. Before the British Mandate officially ended on May 15, 1948, Zionist militias carried out a series of assaults on Palestinian villages and towns, trying to capture as much land as possible. One of the most horrific incidents was the Deir Yassin massacre, which occurred on April 9, 1948. Zionist fighters slaughtered over 100 defenseless civilians, including women and children, in the village near Jerusalem. This barbaric act spread fear and panic among the Palestinian people and sparked a massive flight. Between 1947 and 1949, more than 500 Palestinian localities were emptied and destroyed by Zionist forces, causing about 15,000 Palestinian deaths. Israel thus emerged on 78% of historic Palestine, far beyond the borders suggested by the United Nations Partition Plan of 1947. About 750,000 Palestinians, or more than half of the native population, were forced out of their homes and lands, becoming refugees in neighboring countries or within the remaining Palestinian territories.

Years After the Nakba

After the Nakba, out of the 1.4 million Palestinians who lived in historic Palestine, only about 10 percent managed to stay within the borders of the new state, where they faced severe military rule and systematic discrimination. The rest became refugees in neighboring countries, such as Egypt and Jordan, or in the territories that Israel occupied in 1967, namely the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), founded in 1964, emerged as the main political body that sought to represent the aspirations and rights of the Palestinian people, both inside and outside Israel.

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The Naksa (Six-Day War) and Settlements

In 1967, the Six-Day War resulted in Israel’s occupation of the remaining Palestinian territories, including the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula. These territories were home to many Palestinians, some of whom had already been displaced by the 1948 war that established Israel. The Israeli occupation of these territories led to further dispossession and displacement of Palestinians, as well as human rights violations and restrictions on their movement and access to resources. Israel also started to build settlements in the occupied territories, where Jewish settlers were granted privileges and protections that were denied to the Palestinians living under military rule. This created a situation of inequality and injustice that persists until today.

The First Intifada (1987-1993)

The First Intifada, the first Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, began in 1987 after a traffic accident in Gaza killed four Palestinians. It led to a mass movement of resistance, involving demonstrations, boycotts, and clashes with Israeli soldiers. The Palestinians mainly used nonviolent tactics, such as stone-throwing, tire-burning, and olive-tree planting. They also created popular committees to provide health, education, and social services. The uprising also saw the emergence of Hamas, an Islamic military group that opposed the secular leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The Israeli government tried to suppress the Intifada with harsh measures, such as shooting unarmed protesters, summary killings, imposing curfews and closures of universities, deportations, and destroying houses. This period marked the start of popular mobilizations, strikes, and civil disobedience.

The Oslo Accords and the Palestinian Authority

In 1993, after the end of the first Intifada, a series of agreements known as the Oslo Accords were signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The Oslo Accords created the Palestinian Authority (PA), a governing body that was supposed to exercise limited autonomy in some areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The goal was to eventually reach a final status agreement on the issues of borders, security, refugees, and Jerusalem. However, many Palestinians have been disappointed by the PA’s performance, as it has often cooperated with the Israeli occupation forces and failed to protect the rights and interests of its people.

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The Second Intifada (2000)

In the year 2000, a new wave of Palestinian resistance against the Israeli occupation erupted, known as the second Intifada. The immediate catalyst for this uprising was a controversial visit by the then Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon to the holy site of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, which Palestinians regarded as a deliberate provocation and a violation of their religious rights. The second Intifada lasted for about five years and was marked by widespread violence, suicide bombings, military incursions, and human rights violations.

The consequences of this conflict were devastating for the Palestinian people and their aspirations for statehood. The Israeli army reoccupied most of the territories that were under the control of the Palestinian Authority (PA), imposed severe restrictions on movement and access, and demolished thousands of homes and public facilities. Moreover, Israel began to build a massive separation barrier in the West Bank, ostensibly for security reasons, but effectively annexing large portions of Palestinian land and isolating many communities from each other and from their resources.

Palestinian Division and the Gaza Blockade

The Palestinian political landscape underwent significant changes in the mid-2000s, following the death of the long-time leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Yasser Arafat, in 2004. Arafat had been the main negotiator with Israel during the Oslo peace process and the second Palestinian uprising, or Intifada, which lasted from 2000 to 2005. In 2005, Israel withdrew its military forces and about 9,000 Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip, a densely populated coastal enclave that had been occupied by Israel since 1967. The withdrawal was seen as a unilateral move by Israel, without any agreement with the Palestinians.

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In 2006, the Palestinians held their first parliamentary elections since 1996, in which the Islamist movement Hamas, which had boycotted the previous elections, won a surprise majority of seats. Hamas was considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union, and had carried out suicide bombings and rocket attacks against Israel. The victory of Hamas created a political crisis, as the international community refused to recognize or fund the new Hamas-led government, demanding that it renounce violence, recognize Israel and abide by previous agreements. The PLO and its dominant faction, Fatah, which had led the Palestinian Authority (PA) since its establishment in 1994, rejected Hamas’s claim to power and refused to join a national unity government.

The political deadlock soon turned into a violent conflict between Fatah and Hamas, especially in the Gaza Strip, where both factions had armed wing. The clashes escalated in 2007, resulting in hundreds of casualties and widespread human rights violations. In June 2007, Hamas took over full control of the Gaza Strip, ousting Fatah forces and officials. Fatah retained its authority in parts of the West Bank, where Israel maintained its military occupation. The split between the two main Palestinian factions effectively divided the Palestinian territories into two separate entities, with different governments, security forces and legal systems.

The takeover of Gaza by Hamas prompted Israel to tighten its blockade on the coastal enclave, which had been in place since 2006. Israel imposed severe restrictions on the movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza, citing security concerns and the need to isolate Hamas. The blockade had devastating humanitarian and economic consequences for the nearly two million Palestinians living in Gaza, who faced chronic shortages of food, fuel, water, electricity and medical supplies. The blockade also triggered several rounds of armed conflict between Israel and Hamas, as well as other militant groups in Gaza, who fired rockets at Israeli towns and cities in response to Israeli airstrikes and incursions.

Wars on Gaza

The Gaza Strip has been the site of four major Israeli military offensives since 2008, each of which resulted in massive casualties and destruction for the Palestinian population. The Israeli blockade of Gaza, which has been in place since 2007, has severely restricted the entry of humanitarian aid, fuel, and building materials, making recovery and reconstruction extremely difficult. The Israeli attacks have also involved the use of weapons that are prohibited under international law, such as white phosphorus. The most devastating offensive was in 2014, when Israel killed more than 2,100 Palestinians, including nearly 500 children, and wounded another 11,000. The operation, dubbed Operation Protective Edge by Israel, also demolished 20,000 homes and displaced half a million people.

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As of October 2023, the Israel-Palestine conflict continues to be a source of concern and ongoing developments. Recent events include Hamas launching what they termed “Operation al-Aqsa Deluge” on October 7, 2023, with a multi-pronged attack on Israel. This operation marked an unprecedented move in the long-standing conflict. In response, the Israeli military mobilized up to 300,000 reservists and evacuated settlements close to the border with Gaza.

The conflict has resulted in airstrikes and displacement, with Palestinians fleeing Israeli air strikes and seeking refuge in places like schools run by the United Nations in Gaza City though several schools run by UN came under Israeli attack. The situation remains fluid, with ongoing efforts by international organizations and diplomats to address the crisis.

The conflict’s complexity and historical roots continue to pose challenges, making it essential for the international community to work towards a peaceful resolution. The situation is dynamic, and developments are closely monitored by the global community, with the hope of achieving a lasting and just solution to this enduring conflict.